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EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT

BRIDGES’ partners recognise that strong employer engagement is vital in today’s

economic climate. The current COVID-19 pandemic, slow economic recovery,
rapid transformations in technology, emerging mismatches between employer
needs and worker skills, among others, make business and VET partnerships
critical. However, starting such connections and guaranteeing their prosperity is
a long path.

Employer engagement is more than convening employers that meet with VET

representatives periodically, or a one-off project of contract training with a
single employer, though both activities can be valuable to employers, VET
providers, and learners. These activities are necessary but limiting if the goal is
the development of curricula, pathways, skill sets, and credentials that align
with real labour market needs and result in job placement and career success
for both VET learners and employers. To accomplish this, VET professionals need
to upskill and take a more active approach in relating to employers.

Actively approach employers as strategic partners means looking beyond the
immediate needs of a VET provision and seeking ways to make local employers
or industries more competitive. This means to explain to the employers the
benefits of WBL, over an extended period, in a manner that builds trust and
ongoing opportunities through mutual interests’ cooperation and leads to
mutually successful outcomes. Doing so requires communicating with a

'listening” rather than an “inquiring” attitude, i.e., less “How would you be able
to help us?” and more “What are your needs? How might we help in addressing
your challenges?”

To help us better understand participating countries’ contexts and drawn a
bespoke BRIDGES Employer Engagement Framework, a mapping survey was
implemented involving a total of 43 members of the Local Experts Groups,
intending to acquire an outer perspective and to gather significant input on
three key dimensions of effective employer engagement:

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